Poor thermal imagers restricting Army’s ability to conduct night operations in Jammu and Kashmir: Report

The Army’s ability to conduct night operations in J&K is being restricted by poor battery life of hand-held thermal imagers.

File photo - Representational image

Delhi: The Army’s ability to conduct night operations in Jammu and Kashmir is being restricted by poor battery life of hand-held thermal imagers (HHTI), as per an Army report.

According to Hindustan Times, it is also affecting the morale of soldiers.

Also, the battery was supposed to last three to four hours but had a life of barely 20 minutes as it was being extensively used by soldiers. 

Soldiers are said to rely heavily on HHTI for carrying out operations in poor visibility conditions and night and reportedly were forced to carry additional batteries during operations.

HT quoted the report as saying, "...As most of the infiltrations along the Line of Control take place during night/poor visibility conditions, limited life of HHTI hampers the operations."

At the same time, the report, prepared by the Army Design Bureau (ADB), headed by deputy Army chief Lieutenant General Subrata Saha, highlights 28 problems that the army wants to fix.

It said that improving the situational awareness of tank commanders during night has also been identified at a priority.

“While manoeuvring on the battlefield, very often, tanks have to move with their cupolas closed down. Under such conditions and especially at night, the tank commander finds it very difficult to observe all around and can lose orientation rapidly,” the Daily further quoted the report as saying.